Kitty Dunn

Why school Valentine parties were the best

by Kitty Dunn,posted Feb 12 2013 11:12AM

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, partially because my birthday usually gets lumped in with it. But there's another reason I'm not fond of the holiday. Valentine's Day for grown-ups can in no way measure up to the fun of grade school Valentine's Day parties.

I loved everything about it. I loved making my little Valentine "mailbox" that sat on my desk, cutting out hearts and flowers and gluing them onto a shoebox to be filled with greetings from my classmates.

I loved taking the storebought pack of Valentines, popping them out on the perforations, and then matching each Valentine to a kid in my class.

I loved the puns on the cards--from one showing a cute little bear and a saying like "It bears repeating, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Valentine's Day" to "You're a Cu-T-Pie" with a picture of an apple pie.

I also enjoyed all the sugar that came with the party.

Some kids included sweets in their cards, but every one was encourage to bring a treat to share with the class. As I recall, each child was asked to bring enough for around 6 kids, that way every one would get a few snacks. Most kids brought enough for every one though, so in the end most of us would have 25 to 30 sugar laden items to enjoy in rapid succession. If we brought them home we'd probably have to share!

There was just about universal love for this foot-stomper from John Denver.
John Denver had hit after hit in the mid 1970s, and this was one of them, goign all the way to #1 in 1975.
Go ahead, crank it up, sing it loud and proud. And maybe swing...

A silly novelty tune with a jump swing beat took the country by storm--at least parts of it--in early 1984.
A Chicago band called Jump 'N The Saddle scored a #15 with the Curly Shuffle...and it seems a lot of people have some pretty awesome...

It was almost a clean-sweep this morning for the synthesizer heavy "(Keep Feeling) Fascination") by the Human League. Everybody was in the mood for a little 80s fun!
It made it up to #8 on the charts in 1983, a couple of years after...

Here's a song that inspired high-schoolers to act like 12-year-olds back in the late 1970's. The lyric "when you're in love with a beautiful woman, it's hard," was just so darn hilarious!!
Dr. Hook had a lot of hits in the...

Remember when we were headed for the 90s..and grooving to the Escape Club?
This band from London scored a number 1 hit in 1988 with the song "Wild Wild West." It's probably the only song you remember from that band--but they weren't a...

With Father's Day coming up, we thought we'd choose one of the greatest dad songs of all time. But since that song wasn't on the iPod, we decided to go with "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" by Wayne Newton.
This song made...

Today was another busy day at Bonnaroo. We started the day off by seeing Shakey Graves. I missed his show in Madison earlier this year so he was a must see on my list. Loved him!
Right as he ended, a press conference with Ed Helms, Abigail...

Saturday was a very busy day! So many Triple M bands to see! So many concerts were back to back, so we did a lot of walking back and forth from the stages to the media compound. If you're ever in need of getting more steps in during the day,...

There was just about universal love for this foot-stomper from John Denver.
John Denver had hit after hit in the mid 1970s, and this was one of them, goign all the way to #1 in 1975.
Go ahead, crank it up, sing it loud and proud. And maybe swing...

A silly novelty tune with a jump swing beat took the country by storm--at least parts of it--in early 1984.
A Chicago band called Jump 'N The Saddle scored a #15 with the Curly Shuffle...and it seems a lot of people have some pretty awesome...

It was almost a clean-sweep this morning for the synthesizer heavy "(Keep Feeling) Fascination") by the Human League. Everybody was in the mood for a little 80s fun!
It made it up to #8 on the charts in 1983, a couple of years after...

Here's a song that inspired high-schoolers to act like 12-year-olds back in the late 1970's. The lyric "when you're in love with a beautiful woman, it's hard," was just so darn hilarious!!
Dr. Hook had a lot of hits in the...

Remember when we were headed for the 90s..and grooving to the Escape Club?
This band from London scored a number 1 hit in 1988 with the song "Wild Wild West." It's probably the only song you remember from that band--but they weren't a...

With Father's Day coming up, we thought we'd choose one of the greatest dad songs of all time. But since that song wasn't on the iPod, we decided to go with "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" by Wayne Newton.
This song made...

Today was another busy day at Bonnaroo. We started the day off by seeing Shakey Graves. I missed his show in Madison earlier this year so he was a must see on my list. Loved him!
Right as he ended, a press conference with Ed Helms, Abigail...

Saturday was a very busy day! So many Triple M bands to see! So many concerts were back to back, so we did a lot of walking back and forth from the stages to the media compound. If you're ever in need of getting more steps in during the day,...